CONSUMERS are bracing themselves for a hike in their mobile phone bills as companies raise their prices in April.
Mobile providers often increase the cost of their contracts at the start of the new tax year in line with changes in inflation and this year will be no exception.
BT, EE and Vodafone have already said that they will increase bills by up to £74 a year as inflation hits a 30-year high of 5.4%.
And other companies are likely to follow suit.
Your mobile phone provider will give you warning of an increase in your monthly costs.
But there may be ways of avoiding the price rises, according to Pete Chatfield, personal finance expert and founder of the Household Money Saving website.
Here are his top tips to prevent you from being caught out:
Read your contract
Lots of mobile phone companies have price increases already written into the small print, so if you are still within the fixed term of your contract, there isn't much you can do about it, Pete says.
However, at the moment, six companies in the UK – Tesco, Sky, Giffgaff, Smarty, Utility Warehouse and Lebara – don't. So it might be worth swapping to one of these next time your contract comes up for renewal.
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These companies may still put their prices up, but if they do, you'll be within your rights to leave and find another provider if they haven't warned of the potential for price rises in your contract at the start.
And very occasionally the exit penalty fee for leaving your existing provider before your contract is up might be worth paying if you can save considerably more with a new deal.
Shop around
If you are out of your contract period, then you are totally free to shop around for a better deal.
"My recommendation is to check lots of comparison sites," Pete said.
"Check out their SIM-only contracts and see what's on offer – they sometimes have unique deals that you wouldn't find if you went to to a phone company straight away."
Negotiate a better price
If you find a better deal, it is worth contacting your original network. They will be keen for you to stay, so may offer to beat the price, Pete said.
He also recommended being smart about buying the contract, once you've made a decision.
"Once you find a provider that you like, check the cashback sites such as Topcashback and Quidco. At the moment, they will give you up to £65 pounds if you sign up for a new contract via their sites," he pointed out.
Check you're paying for what you use
"The first thing I think people need to look at is how much they actually use their phones," said Pete.
"You tend to get free minutes and texts no matter what contract you're on, but it's the data where most of our money gets spent.
"It's important that people have a look to see how much data they're actually using."
He said that most people can check their actual data usage via their online accounts, or just give your provider a ring to find out roughly how much you need per month.
"You could be paying for far more than you use," he added.
"For example, for unlimited data, you could be paying around £35 per month.
"Whereas if you used around 10GB, which should be enough for almost anybody if you're just browsing social media and sending emails, then you should be able to find a deal for around £10 a month, saving you £25 straight away."
Don't overdo it
Pete also warned it was worth checking you weren't regularly using more than your contract allowed.
"You need to check that you're not paying extra charges because if you go over your data usage, your provider will charge you an absolute bomb to do that.
"It may be that you need to increase what you are paying in your monthly contract to add on extra data, which should save you money in the long run as you won't be paying the one-off charges."
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